It's dying. It's a freebie phone that came with the cell plan about three years ago. It turns off randomly, and will sometimes power up again.

As soon as the tax return comes in, I will have no more excuses not to get an iPhone.

Blogging.

At least in theory. I have a number of places of my own, but most recently I've joined up at Gender Goggles, and done a total of One! One Guest Post there. I have another that needs to be written, which I'll aim for this week, if the Shmoog's teething will calm down long enough for me to concentrate and write simultaneously.

Making friends.

A regrettably necessary activity when one is in a new city. I helped a friend start packing/loading truck last night for a move that is taking until the end of the month to be completed; I plan to at least try to attend a moms' group meeting Tuesday evening; a young woman I met through a knitting group has been invited over for dinner Thursday; a crafting/clothing swap night is planned in about two weeks amongst a group of friends to whom tanglethis introduced me.

Answer these in the comments, and post the questions to your own blog if you want to have others answer them for you.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?02) What was your dream growing up?03) What talent do you wish you had?04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?05) Favorite vegetable?06) What was the last book you read?07) What zodiac sign are you?08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.09) Worst Habit?10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?11) What is your favorite sport?12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?15) Tell me one weird fact about you.16) Do you have any pets?17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?18) What was your first impression of me?19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?22) What color eyes do you have?23) Ever been arrested?24) Bottle or can soda?25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?28) Do you believe in ghosts?29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?30) Do you swear a lot?31) Biggest pet peeve?32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?34) Favourite and least favourite food?35) Do you believe in God?36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.2) Italicize those you intend to read.3) Underline the books you LOVE.4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

Because girlwithoutfear has one up for the U.S., I had to do this again too. (If you want to go to the northern western states sometime, girlwithoutfear, let me know, and we might finagle a trip together. I've never been there either.)

Well, I didn't miss the whole MONTH. Just the part in it where I have something to divulge in the super-secret or somewhat-secret-friends-only posts, or even just the ho-hum-this-is-today posts that used to be the exclusive justification for putting myself out in the blogosphere, anyway. These days, my purpose is less venting, more, well, sometimes more ranting, sometimes examining, sometimes calling-out. Just not in the way I used to do things. Generally "examining the world and calling people out (and ranting)", rather than "engaging in intense navel-gazing, calling out for support (and ranting)".

My focus has shifted.

I am, however, going to do something of value today. I'm cleaning out my friends list.

If I don't remember you, or don't remember how I'm supposed to know you, sorry, I won't be keeping up anymore. I am probably going to unsubscribe from myriad communities as well, since I'm not really keeping up with them anyway (Sorry, scans_daily. I know where to find you.)

Paring down for simplicity's sake: an all-too-necessary undertaking. Never pleasant, always rewarding.

Okay, not lazy. Busy. Working a lot does this for me: it makes me spend less time on the computer, and more time with the people around me. But this is my Friday night, for this week at least, and I'm determined to make a bit more of a connection with folks in other places than my home and town.

So I've put a bit out there. The rest of the afternoon will be devoted to catching up with all of you.

I finally picked up fun reading about two weeks ago, and have ripped through three novels in that time (in addition to doing my homework, yet). During the heap big studying I did for my exams, the only fun reading I could manage hadtohavepictures, or, better yet, was only pictures. I was sufficiently brain-fried from reading literature that novels weren't even a possibility until about... well... two weeks ago.

I started off with the bookstore lady's recommendation, Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne. The recommendation came on the basis that I liked (okay seriously <3 !) the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. This is a similar genre, and I thought, okay, give it a shot.

What I got was a rather predictable reading experience: I knew who committed the murder within the first 80 pages, and I had seized upon this person as a suspect before the first 40 were up. After that it was all a matter of seeing 1) what happened 2) what nuances led the heroine to solve the mystery. In spite of a few brief high points (the final scene revealing all, a clear homage to Agatha Christie's parlor scenes; a couple of nice twists and turns; the incredible amount of historical detail) I was horribly disappointed by a number of things.( What really frustrated me is under the cut. )

The third book I (re-)read The Golden Compass this week, so in honor of that, here's my daemon! black_kitty reminded me of it, so I thought I'd do this again. I did this before when Kit had this in her LJ, and I had an ocelot daemon named Brynn. My 'new' daemon is...

I started the second book in the series, The Subtle Knife today, and am already a full 50 pages into it, in spite of many other activities.

One of which was getting a job.

I was hired on today to work in Produce at The Merc which honestly tickles me pink. I've been looking for a while now and was beginning to think that everyone would consider me 'overqualified', which is, quite frankly, annoying as hell.

In any case, I'm going to be learning a lot about fresh stuff, which is good, since I like to 1) cook it and 2) eat it. I plan to further my culinary education with the classes they offer there (not a bad thing, and they're free to employees!)

For once, I've actually managed to read my friends' page, thanks to bluecanarykit leaving hers up and my dear one not getting off work until about 8-8:30 tonight. In so doing, I managed to leave a few snark-filled comments on scans_daily, see some fun cats on bentolunch, and read stuff what made me think on a couple of journals, the extents of which are to be detailed here.First, prettywendylady posted an.. interesting.. meme. I'm going to use it for fodder on the geek blog, since that's where all my feminism training goes.

Secondly, hillarygayle posted a letter to the editor from the Jonesboro Sun, which I find particularly entertaining and, well, instructive, if you want to find out the kind of place I grew up with. Apparently, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, global warming is a joke.

Also, I should clue all you, my friends and readers, into the change that has knocked my balance around somewhat. The faculty at Unnamed University where I'm getting my M.A. has decided that they are "not confident I would finish a dissertation", and therefore have declined to recommend me for the Ph.D.

I found this out a week ago, and was... disappointed, hurt, and my pride was a bit wounded.

I've not been deterred from doing a Ph.D. somewhere else, however. What this means is that I wouldn't fit into their program, which is a feeling I've been getting for some time now (two years or so), when I am willing to admit it to myself. The short version: There's not a faculty adviser who could help me study what I want to study, and there's not enough variety/flexibility in the program itself to allow me to do so in the first place.

I'm not willing to spend my time trying to manipulate the education I want from a university that can't give it too me. No blood from a stone, so to speak.

So the next little while will be spent in contemplation, deciding what I want to do, and where I need to go to get that done. My dearest one is supporting me 100%, and willing to follow, if moving is necessary to my fulfillment.

Then I was a-thinking to myself: 'Self, do you really need all that junk there? There might be embarrassing details from lives past, or at least stoopid little posts about nothing!' Seeing thereupon that my lovely self was right, I proceeded to begin a most righteous Spring Cleaning of the mess I'd just made.

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at the age of 84. Most know him for his longer works like Slaughterhouse Five, but I was introduced to him in English class with Harrison Bergeron. If you haven't read HB, I suggest you do. It's a pretty good illustration of the patriarchy, for one thing, whether or not Mr. Vonnegut intended that.

Requiescat in pace.

I posted this yesterday to the geek blog as an addendum to another post (mainly because Joel told me about it while I was still writing).

I don't really think I've done justice to how much Harrison Bergeron had an effect on me. I don't even remember whose class I read it for, or what grade I was in. What I remember is the injustice of not being allowed to be oneself, of being handicapped in order to be "normal", and as a misfit smart kid in a middling size town in Arkansas, I could completely understand *that*.

I don't remember reading anything truly science fiction before that, either. I may have done, but HB is the first science fiction I remember vividly. I mean, I'd read Lord of the Rings, but that's more fantasy (a genre I still enjoy to this day).

I think Harrison Bergeron was the first short story I truly loved.

As often happens with first loves, I find I haven't really thought about HB in quite some time. I probably haven't read it in 10 years. But now I'm thinking of it again, I might just have to go back and remember. I hope (and suspect) that it will stand up well to my grown-up, literature-analysis influenced perspective just as well as it appealed to my teenage sensibilities.

For anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who wants to learn to draw in a Manga, I've heard that Manga Secrets (art-ed by Lea Hernandez) is pretty good.

And Lea's thinking about writing a book, and self-publishing it, that would essentially be a follow-up to Manga Secrets.

In her words:

I want to do another book on drawing costuming. This is stuff lacking in almost all manga how-to. Not just how to draw clothes that look like clothes (instead shapes defined by elective slashes), but how to show a character at a glance with hair, clothes and attitude. Plus, a few stern lectures on what's Been Done To Death.

Apparently it's true. If you thought Disney could douse people in pink, I think they just met their match.

Although the bento lunches were 1) very much in the bento aesthetic and 2) looked a whole lot better than American airplane food.

* Okay, maybe more than the next person. At this point, the person next to me is my husband, and I don't know that he would ever buy Sanrio stuff, except maybe for our niece and nephews. I'd get Keroppi for myself. :)

1) My exams are coming up (less than two weeks now) and I'm stressing out. So, since I'm stressed, I feel like looking at the pretty hydrangea close-up, instead of trying to find an icon that expresses stressed-out-edness.

2) I have really done something to my hand. The knuckles of my left hand (thankfully not my writing hand) are sore enough that certain movements are quite surprisingly painful. Typing's fine, as is picking up a book. But trying to slide a notecard from the back of a stack with my left hand *hurts*. It's been a couple of weeks now -- I'm wondering if I'm clenching my fist in my sleep or something, because I can't really think of anything I've done to my left hand specifically that would cause any kind of strain on the ligaments around the middle knuckles of all my fingers except the pinky. Since it aches to make a fist, I'm thinking that might be right.

That's pretty much the state of my right now. I've been writing occasionally on differing topics, and thinking about writing more than I actually have been; it's usually tekanji's fault. I've been sewing lately too -- more for stress relief than anything else -- and I might actually get a bookbag out of it. ^_^

In "re-purposing" my blogs, it seems to me that I'm limiting myself somehow. Part of me neither needs nor particularly wants to have blogs for different purposes (here, the Blogger account and now a new WordPress blog). Of course, the other part argues, it might be convenient for people to have a reasonable idea of what to expect when they read...

And then I hear in my head: "Do you do this for them, or for you?"

So, all re-purposing aside, what you read is what you get. And that goes for me too, and most of all.

--

Sixteen days until exams. There might yet be self-examination before then, but I wouldn't count on it, were I you. ;)

Sometimes I'm struck by a real streak of laziness -- from being tired or stressed, sure, but it's still there -- and some days I get an unexpected burst of energy, drive and focus that I make good use of.

These days also usually follow each other.

Sunday was definitely a lazy day -- I didn't once leave my house -- and it got me some well-deserved rest, after traveling the previous three weekends, and then the much-delayed bedtime thanks to drama at the downstairs neighbor's Saturday night. Yesterday I felt like doing more, but the fatigue set in again that afternoon, and I went home and made use of it.

Today, however, was pleasantly productive. I started in on my homework about 11:00 a.m., and was finished with both that days' assigment (for 4 p.m.) and tomorrow's for the 9:00 class (although that translation is a bit rough still).

Now tonight I'm trying to convince myself that more work is a good thing. :) I'm needing a bit of a rest, but I have so much studying for my exams to do that I want to get more done tonight.

So what do I do? I blog about it in the hopes that this will serve as enough of a break before soldering on.

At least I voted today: local primaries for City Commissioner. I actually care what happens to this place. It's my home now.